The present invention is directed, in general, to telecommunication devices and, more specifically, to a remotely operable telephone answering device and a method of operating the same.
Voicemail has enhanced communications capability, in the modern environment, by allowing the user to both receive and send recorded voice messages when one of the communicating parties is not available at the moment. In fact, much of the flow of contemporary commerce and the transaction of business depends on stored voice messages. Equally important to modern life styles is the ability to send and receive non-business messages that are of a personal nature relating to family, friends or community involvement.
Personal voicemail is often supplied by an answering service that is external to a facility, such as a residence, or by telephone answering devices such as answering machines inside the residence. External answering services provide many beneficial features such as the ability to access the stored voice messages from any telephone. Additionally, these external answering services may also provide notification to a user""s pager that a voicemail message has been received. The downside to external answering services is that they have an ongoing monthly service fee.
Answering machines, on the other hand, may be purchased for a nominal one-time cost and installed in the residence. Answering machines have become highly reliable and even provide digital, tapeless recording supported by voice time coding of the recorded message as well as other desirable features. They are easily installed at a telephone outlet, typically next to a telephone, without the need for additional telephone wiring. To retrieve messages, the user must gain access to the features of the answering machine either manually at the machine or remotely offsite using an access code for messages.
Answering machines may, of course, be used with a wide range of telephones including cordless units. Answering machines typically do not interfere with Caller ID. Additionally, speaker phones may have both built in Caller ID and answering capability. Some sites may even use multiple cordless handsets all connected to a single base station. However, all of these environments generally suffer from the inability to command the answering machine while on site but remote from the answering machine. What is needed in the art is a way to connect a telephone answering device that allows expanded capability and control with minor site modifications.
To address the above-discussed deficiencies of the prior art, the present invention provides a TAD and a method of controlling the TAD. In one embodiment, the TAD includes: (1) an external interface couplable to a telephone line outbound from a site, (2) an internal interface couplable to a client telephone and (3) decode circuitry, associated with the internal interface, that interprets affirmative commands received from the client telephone to allow the client telephone to control the TAD.
The present invention therefore introduces what amounts to a TAD-based telephone system that is local to a given site, for instance, a residence. The TAD forms, in effect, a server for the system, recording and playing back messages under control either locally or from any telephone coupled to the TAD via its internal interface.
xe2x80x9cAffirmative commandxe2x80x9d is defined, for purposes of the present invention, as a signal transmitted from the telephone to the TAD that a user specifically intends to direct the TAD to take an action. A telephone xe2x80x9chookstatexe2x80x9d (literally, the state of the telephone""s hook: xe2x80x9coff-hookxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9con-hookxe2x80x9d) is not an affirmative command, because changing the hookstate of a telephone is necessary to making or ending a call and is therefore neither intentional nor affirmative. In one embodiment of the present invention, the affirmative commands may be embodied as one or more dual-tone multifrequency (DTMF) tones, as a conventional telephone might generate. Of course, other forms of affirmative commands are within the broad scope of the present invention.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the internal interface is a wireless interface. Alternatively, the internal interface may be a wire-based interface.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the internal interface is a two conductor interface couplable to an unused wire-pair at the site. Those skilled in the art are aware that many residences are equipped with two pairs of wires, but that the majority of those residences only use one of the two wire-pairs. The present invention can employ the remaining, unused wire-pair for intra-site communication with one or more telephones.
In a more specific embodiment of the present invention, the client telephone is coupled to a wire-pair separate from the unused wire-pair for communication of voice signals. In one embodiment to be described, the path for communicating affirmative commands to the TAD differs from the path for carrying voice traffic from the telephone to the outbound telephone line. In fact, the unused wire-pair can be employed exclusively to carry affirmative commands.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the internal interface is a four conductor, wire-based interface. Thus, the present invention contemplates an embodiment wherein four wires couple the TAD to one or more telephones. Although this embodiment may require some modification to standard residential wiring, transmission rates between the TAD and the telephone(s) can increase dramatically.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the TAD detects a hookstate of the client telephone via the internal interface. In an embodiment to be illustrated and described, the TAD ceases to answer a call or play or record messages when it detects that a telephone coupled to its internal interface has gone off-hook.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the TAD further includes call completion circuitry, associated with the external interface, that completes a call via the telephone line on behalf of the client telephone. Thus, the TAD may act as a proxy for making or completing calls on behalf of the telephone(s) coupled to its internal interface. Of course, such need not be the case.
The foregoing has outlined, rather broadly, preferred and alternative features of the present invention so that those skilled in the art may better understand the detailed description of the invention that follows. Additional features of the invention will be described hereinafter that form the subject of the claims of the invention. Those skilled in the art should appreciate that they can readily use the disclosed conception and specific embodiment as a basis for designing or modifying other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention. Those skilled in the art should also realize that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention in its broadest form.